Obsessive hoarder -- or lifelogger!

Two stories -- one recent and one not-so-recent -- on NPR shows should be listened to in sequence -- or at least I find them related in interesting ways. The first, Clinging to Clutter, was originally broadcast on Weekend America in October, was rebroadcast last weekend. It is about a woman who suffers from a hoarding obsession, and for those of us with such tendencies (I have mentioned my obsessive attachment to books, etc.) it throws a tragic light on how things can get out of hand. That said, I was equally fascinated while listening to today's long On The Media segment on a "lifelogging" project focusing on Gordon Bell, a Microsoft computer scientist, and a follow-up interview with Clive Thompson who wrote a piece on the project for FastCompany. For obvious reasons, I came away from the lifelogging piece a bit less depressed and certainly less anxious about my own behavior. It just so happens that I very recently embarked on my own "scanning" project as a way of dealing with the fact that I am just going to have to dump the many books and papers that were damaged in last spring's flooding of my basement. Drying has worked for some of the material, but mold and mildew, etc has really taken its toll. New scanners at home and the office will be my salvation, but as I planned out that effort over the past couple of months my thoughts were drawn back to the story of the obsessive hoarder. Now I realize I am just a pioneering lifelogger.... Tags: Clive Thompson, lifelogging, On The Media, Weekend America, hoarding, obsessive behavior, FastCompany, Gordon Bell, Brooke Gladstone, NPR, Mel Dubnick, accountabilitybloke